Paths of Yeast Assistance

Many natural products have pharmacological activities of potential therapeutic interest, but research has been hampered by problems producing enough pure material for research purposes. In Nature Chemical Biology, researchers at the California Institute of Technology now have described an alkaloid production platform that uses engineered yeast for the customized biosynthesis of natural products.¹

In proof-of-concept studies with benzylisoquinolines, a large family of plant alkaloids, the platform achieved product yields in the range of tens of mg/L, which are several times higher than those achieved with conventional approaches that rely on plant cultivation or laboratory synthesis...